Why use a make-up artist on your wedding day?

I’m sure that’s a ques­tion many brides-to-be have asked them­selves. Or indeed, been asked by their fiancé/mother/mother-in-law?!

“You do your own make-up every day? Why get some­one in to do what you already do yourself?”

I’m going to take you through all the fac­tors of bridal make-up and explain the hows and whys.

As a make-up artist with 14 years’ expe­ri­ence, I’ve done the make-up for more brides than I can count. Each one had an indi­vid­u­ally designed look.  Some wanted dark smoky eyes, oth­ers wanted soft, barely there neu­trals and every­thing imag­in­able inbe­tween. The one fac­tor they all had in com­mon? They all wanted to look their absolute best. The wed­ding day is the one day when look­ing per­fect is imperative!

So you need to take into con­sid­er­a­tion these aspects;

Longevity- This make-up needs to last all day. And night!

You don’t want to be touch­ing up your eye­shadow and re-concealing half way through the day. Good make-up artists have tricks a plenty up their sleeves when it comes to achiev­ing that long stay fin­ish. I always pay close atten­tion to the skin and address any under­ly­ing issues before I even touch it with base! Then there’s set­ting the make-up with­out look­ing dry and pow­dery, stop­ping the eyes from creas­ing, liner from smudging.

Pho­tog­ra­phy- Flash pho­tog­ra­phy can have a huge effect on the make-up you wear.

It can change what looks like a nat­ural make-up into a ‘noth­ing at all’ look! That smudge of kohl pen­cil and quick coat of mas­cara won’t stand up to the job.  With­out enough def­i­n­i­tion around the eyes, they’ll dis­ap­pear (not lit­er­ally, just pho­to­graph­i­cally!). The art is hav­ing enough on so your fea­tures are defined but not so much that you feel over done. I have a tech­nique where I press liner into the roots of the lash; this gives the right amount of depth just where it’s needed.  Plus, it’s water­proof, of course!

When it comes to foun­da­tion, hav­ing a base on that doesn’t reflect well can lead to a washed out com­plex­ion. I’m a stick­ler for ensur­ing the skin looks as flaw­less as pos­si­ble with­out even look­ing as though there is any make-up on.  A make-up artist will have a vari­ety of shades in his/her kit, that way, if you’ve had a spray tan or used a self tan at home, your face will match your body exactly. There’s noth­ing worse than your face look­ing like it’s stuck onto some­one else’s body!

I painstak­ingly cus­tom blend the foun­da­tion on the day to get the per­fect shade and tex­ture. Also, be very care­ful not to use light reflec­tive prod­ucts, unless they’re being used for clever high­light­ing and con­tour­ing, they can reflect back a white tone, espe­cially around the eyes and can be spot­ted a mile off.

The look- We, as women, are super crit­i­cal when we look in the mir­ror! It’s hard for us to be objec­tive when it comes to our own faces. That’s why we so often get stuck in make-up ruts. A make-up artist looks at you differently.

I look at my client and I see the beauty in her face. I see what I want to enhance and empha­sise, as opposed to what I want to cover. This gives a fresh take on styles and colours that you may have never thought of. A good make-up artist will bear what you do every day in mind and cre­ate you a look that com­bines your own style with new ideas. The idea is not to make you look like some­one else, just a more pol­ished, per­fect ver­sion of you! Don’t be afraid to show clip­pings from mag­a­zines of make-up that you’ve seen. Some­times it’s eas­ier to show than to describe. That’s what tri­als are for!

Time- Don’t under­es­ti­mate how manic the morn­ing of your wed­ding can get! I like to take the bride off into another room to do her make-up. This gives her a break from the may­hem and lets her focus on the most impor­tant thing, herself!

It’s one of the things my brides always com­ment on, how relaxed they feel by the time their make-up is done. Between myself and the hair­dresser, we get the bride ready first and then it’s time for the brides­maids, mother-of– bride and every­one else! Then, when every­one is done, I return to the bride.

By this time, she’s hope­fully had some­thing to eat and drink. It’s time for a small sip of cham­pagne and the last touch ups. I put her lips on last; check the bride has her touch up items in a lit­tle bag. I then have a look at her back, shoul­ders and arms for any blem­ishes that need cam­ou­flag­ing, get those cov­ered and sealed and wait for the dress to be put on.

Finally, I take a pic­ture on my dig­i­tal cam­era to check there’s noth­ing reflect­ing badly with the flash. Then I show the bride so she can see how amaz­ing she looks.

Thanks to Katy Ange­lidi fromwww.makeupbykaty.com for sub­mit­ting this arti­cle. If it’s helped you, please let me know.

If you’d like to talk to Katy about your own wed­ding make-up, please feel free to drop her an e-mail on katy@makeupbykaty.com and have a look at her web­site to see more of her work www.makeupbykaty.com.

Katy also writes a really infor­ma­tive and enter­tain­ing blog about all things beauty and make-up related www.makeupbykaty.blogspot.com — I’ve learned from it myself and can highly rec­om­mend her advice!